Portugal has made significant progress in adopting measures to combat violence against women in recent years, but urgent action is needed in certain areas to fully comply with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210), known as the “Istanbul Convention”, concludes the Council of Europe Group of Experts GREVIO in a new thematic report released today.
The report assesses the wide variety of measures taken by the Portuguese authorities since 2019 to prevent violence against women and domestic violence and to deliver protection, support and justice for victims. It praises the authorities’ comprehensive approach to violence against women, with notable long-term efforts invested in different sectors.
GREVIO welcomes several criminal law reforms, particularly the adoption of a consent-based definition of rape. It finds that the introduction of a “no-means-no” definition of rape is an important step in the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, demonstrating an understanding of the need for criminal justice for non-consensual sexual acts in the country.
The report praises the authorities’ successful efforts to embed the healthcare sector within the broader framework for the protection of women victims of violence, notably through the work of the Adult Violence Prevention Teams, present in every hospital and healthcare centre across the country. Furthermore, it commends action taken to streamline data collection and raise awareness about violence against women, in particular concerning female genital mutilation.
GREVIO also notes the positive effect on victims’ trust brought by offices for victim support integrated into the work of prosecution offices, and the rollout of specialised domestic violence sections in several prosecution offices across the country.
Despite this progress, GREVIO urges the authorities to take action to cover several gaps in the implementation of the convention.
As a matter of priority, the authorities need to address the question of lenient and disproportionate sanctions issued by the judiciary, particularly in respect of domestic and sexual violence. To address this problem, GREVIO urges the authorities to introduce mandatory initial and in-service training for members of the judiciary on all forms of violence against women covered by the convention.
GREVIO also underscores the need to tackle patriarchal attitudes still present among some members of the judiciary, which privilege the protection of the family unit at the expense of victims’ rights and stresses that the so-called parental alienation syndrome should not be used in family proceedings with a history of domestic violence.
Although GREVIO recognises that the authorities have made significant efforts to increase the availability of specialised support services for women victims, a dedicated national telephone helpline for women victims of all forms of violence operating 24/7 has yet to be introduced, which represents a significant shortcoming in the implementation of the convention.
Additional efforts are also required to bring the number of family places in shelters across the country in line with the convention’s requirements of one family place per 10,000 inhabitants and to increase the overall availability of medium and long-term specialist support services for women victims.
GREVIO urges the authorities to remove the requirement currently in place that makes access to a domestic violence shelter contingent on the reporting of the violence. Similarly, they should remove without delay the requirement to report a rape within six or twelve months of the incident as a prerequisite for an investigation to be opened.
Finally, GREVIO finds that it is urgent also to overhaul the systems for emergency barring and protection orders. Emergency barring orders now take 48 hours to obtain and can only be issued by a judge as part of ongoing criminal proceedings, which does not provide immediate protection for victims. In addition, protection orders should be available upon request ex parte by victims, and monitoring of their implementation needs to be strengthened.
